Surface RT won't charge anymore

[Generalheed]

Just the other day, my 1st gen Surface RT suddenly won't charge anymore. The light on the charger doesn't turn on when it's plugged in. I can still briefly turn the Surface on but it just shows the low battery alert and won't boot of course. I thought it was the charger at first so I ended up ordering a new charger but that charger doesn't work either. Either I'm extremely unlucky and both chargers are broken, or something is wrong with my Surface. Any advice on this? I looked at Microsoft's out of warranty repairs for my Surface RT and it will actually cost $450 to replace it! That price is just simply outrageous. Idk if there are any 3rd party repair services that are cheaper either. I know the Surface RT is old, but I still use it a lot as my travel tablet or for some web browsing.

 

[TechFreak1]

Just the other day, my 1st gen Surface RT suddenly won't charge anymore. The light on the charger doesn't turn on when it's plugged in. I can still briefly turn the Surface on but it just shows the low battery alert and won't boot of course. I thought it was the charger at first so I ended up ordering a new charger but that charger doesn't work either. Either I'm extremely unlucky and both chargers are broken, or something is wrong with my Surface. Any advice on this? I looked at Microsoft's out of warranty repairs for my Surface RT and it will actually cost $450 to replace it! That price is just simply outrageous. Idk if there are any 3rd party repair services that are cheaper either. I know the Surface RT is old, but I still use it a lot as my travel tablet or for some web browsing.

I don't suppose you have any of your data backed up?

The problem with the surface devices that they are not that easy to repair and are beyond economical repair as you have found out.

The way I see it is that you have four options:

1) cut your losses

2) take a risk and go to 3rd party service centre for repair

3) go for the out of warranty quote

4) try to repair it yourself.

Personally, if there is no critical data or priceless data suchas work documents, holiday photos etc then I'd get another device. If you want to get the same device, you could get one off ebay for very cheap.

Or go for an updated Surface device, as for $450-$550ish dollars you can get a refurbished Surface Pro 4 if you are fortunate.

The alternative would be wait for Windows on ARM to be officially launched in Spring and get a cheap device to tide you over.

 

[anthonyng]

wow, I find my RT just too slow even for light use. I'd rather use my windows phones

Too bad you don't know of someone who has a working one.... really not sure what to do in that situation.